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Re: Origin of Evil

Jul 01, 2006 12:35 PM
by W.Dallas TenBroeck


Saturday, July 01, 2006

Dear Friends:


Lets consider what THEOSOPHY has said on this subject:



			SOURCE  OF EVIL  


	NEVER DOES THE INEFFABLE STAND UNVEILED BEFORE MORTAL MAN


Q	(2) I met an F.T.S. the other day who believes he has arrived at
"Saintship" and cannot therefore err. He cannot bear the slightest
contradiction , believing that he has arrived at such a state of
"enlightenment" that he is infallible, whereas we less gifted mortals feel
that he often makes grave mistakes. Of course this assumption is untenable
in this case, but are sainthood and consequent infallibility likely to
result from the humdrum every-day life of an ordinary nineteenth century
man?


Answer - For the Deity there is no fall. He can not fall. 

In the so-called descent into matter, He must manifest through something.
Never does the Ineffable stand unveiled before mortal man. 

When the All Wise deemed it good to manifest Himself as individualities, He
did so through the soul. [MANAS -- DUALITY of Higher and Lower Mind
depending on how we aim  its power]

After creating the human man with the soul that all things possess, "He
breathed into his nostrils and man became a living soul," or the Deity
manifested Himself through the soul in the man. 

Nothing below man is immortal. 

Man is not immortal; his soul is not immortal; but the breath of God, which
is God's life or God himself, is forever. 

Man was to have lived as the angels, "for they also were made"; but,
although by the grosser elements of matter or nature, by its lusts and
desires, its seductive beauties and deceptive pleasures, realized most fully
through the senses of the human body, the soul was drawn down instead of
upward, into ignorance of the true instead of toward the wisdom of God,
holding and binding thus the spirit in the meshes of the grossest part of
nature, and so fell. 


				EVIL  -- SOURCE OF


God did not fall, - the spirit; nor did man as the human man; but the soul,
being a free agent, did so, causing the spirit to be limited, and entailing
pain and anguish upon the human man. 

Man with the Divine manifest in him was to know only the good, or wisdom;
but, not content, he must eat of the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil,
or the misapplication of the good, and fell into ignorance. 

There can be no greater evil than losing the wisdom of a God for the
ignorance of a man. Herein consists the only evil of the fall after the
descent into matter.	
	W Q  J ART  II  P. 451




 	THE ORIGIN OF EVIL by H. P. Blavatsky

		[H P B Articles  I  124,  extracts]

	

P. 124	 The problem of the origin of evil can be philosophically
approached… [by] ancient wisdom… It attributes the birth of Kosmos and the
evolution of life to the breaking asunder of primordial, manifested UNITY,
into plurality, or the great illusion of form. HOMOGENEITY having
transformed itself into Heterogeneity, contrasts have naturally been
created; hence sprang what we call EVIL  [P. 134   …the Indian formula,
which is a Secret Doctrine teaching.] [ P. 130   This explanation of the
problem and origin of evil being…of an entirely metaphysical character, has
nothing to do with physical laws…] 


P. 125	The Eastern pantheist, whose philosophy teaches him to discriminate
between Being or ESSE …He knows he can put an end to form alone, not to
being--and that only on this plane of terrestrial illusion. 


P. 125	…by killing out in himself Tanha (the unsatisfied desire for
existence, or the "will to live")--he will thus gradually escape the curse
of rebirth and conditioned existence. 


P. 125	…believing but in One Reality, which is eternal Be-ness, the
"causeless CAUSE" from which he has exiled himself into a world of forms, he
regards the temporary and progressing manifestations of it in the state of
Maya (change or illusion), as the greatest evil…but…as a process in nature,
as unavoidable… It is the only means by which he can pass from limited and
conditioned lives of sorrow into eternal life, or into that absolute
"Be-ness," which is so graphically expressed in the Sanskrit word SAT. 


P. 125	   The idea that matter and its Protean manifestations are the
source and origin of universal evil and sorrow is a very old one, 


P. 125	   Gautama Buddha …the Sage and Philosopher, who sacrificed himself
for Humanity by living for it, in order to save it, [in living, not in
running away from life]  by teaching men to see in the sensuous existence of
matter misery alone…his efforts were to release mankind from too strong an
attachment to life, which is the chief cause of Selfishness--hence the
creator of mutual pain and suffering. 


P. 126	   His doctrine shows evil immanent, not in matter, which is
eternal, but in the illusions created by it: through the changes and
transformations of matter generating life--because these changes are
conditioned and such life is ephemeral.  	[ WHY ?]


P. 126	…if we would discern good from evil, light from darkness, and
appreciate the former, we can do so only through the contrasts between the
two.


P. 126	   Buddha's philosophy points [to]…its esotericism, the hidden soul
of it, draws the veil aside and reveals to the Arhat all the glories of LIFE
ETERNAL in all the Homogeneousness of Consciousness and Being…a fact to the
Sage and esoteric Pantheist. 


P. 126	…the root idea that evil is born and generated by the ever
increasing complications of the homogeneous material, which enters into form
and differentiates more and more as that form becomes physically more
perfect, has an esoteric side to it …


P. 126	   Its dead-letter aspect, however, became the subject of
speculation with every ancient thinking nation…in India the primitive
thought…has been disfigured by Sectarianism, and has led to the ritualistic,
purely dogmatic observances of the Hatha Yogis, in contradistinction to the
philosophical Vedantic Raja Yoga. 


P. 127	  It thus follows that the deeply religious Pantheism of the Hindu
and Buddhist philosopher…[lead him to consider that]…pain as well as sorrow
are illusions, due to attachment to this life, and ignorance. Therefore he
strives after eternal, changeless life, and absolute consciousness in the
state of Nirvana


P. 127	   For the [Hindu]… philosopher there is but one real life, Nirvanic
bliss, which is a state differing in kind, not in degree only, from that of
any of the planes of consciousness in the manifested universe. [He]…in his
spiritual aspirations [ignores]…even the integral homogeneous unit…He knows
of, and believes in only the direct cause of that unit, eternal and ever
living, because the ONE uncreated, or rather not evoluted. 


P. 127	   Hence all his efforts are directed toward the speediest reunion
possible with, and return to his pre-primordial condition, after his
pilgrimage through this illusive series of visionary lives, with their
unreal phantasmagoria of sensuous perceptions. 


P. 128	…the Eastern Pantheist…submits to the inevitable, and tries to blot
out from his path in life as many "descents into rebirth" as he can, by
avoiding the creation of new Karmic causes. [JAINS] The Buddhist philosopher
knows that the duration of the series of lives of every human being--unless
he reaches Nirvana "artificially" ("takes the kingdom of God by violence
")…is given, allegorically in the forty-nine days passed by Gautama the
Buddha under the Bo-tree…And the Hindu sage is aware, in his turn, that he
has to light the first, and extinguish the forty-ninth fire before he
reaches his final deliverance. Knowing this, both sage and philosopher wait
patiently for the natural hour of deliverance.
.

P. 128 Fn	This is an esoteric tenet…the Theosophist…may compute the 7
by 7 of the forty-nine "days" and the forty-nine "fires," and understand
that the allegory refers esoterically to the seven human consecutive
root-races with their seven subdivisions. Every monad is born in the first
and obtains deliverance in the last seventh race. Only a "Buddha" is shown
reaching it during the course of one life. 


P. 128	   The seeds of evil and sorrow were indeed the earliest result and
consequence of the heterogeneity of the manifested universe. Still they are
but an illusion produced by the law of contrasts, which, as described, is a
fundamental law in nature. Neither good nor evil would exist were it not for
the light they mutually throw on each other. 


P. 129	   Being, under whatever form, having been observed from the World's
creation to offer these contrasts, and evil predominating in the universe
owing to Ego-ship or selfishness, the rich Oriental metaphor has pointed to
existence as expiating the mistake of nature; and the human soul (psuche),
was henceforth regarded as the scapegoat and victim of unconscious
OVER-SOUL. 


P. 129	   Ignorance alone is the willing martyr, but knowledge is the
master, of natural Pessimism. 


 P. 129	   If, instead of that, man proceeding on his life-journey
looked…but within himself and centered his point of observation on the inner
man, he would soon escape from the coils of the great serpent of illusion.
>From the cradle to the grave, his life would then become supportable and
worth living, even in its worst phases. 


P. 129	   Pessimism--that chronic suspicion of lurking evil everywhere…is a
boon to the spiritual, inasmuch as it makes the latter turn into the right
path, and brings him to the discovery of another as fundamental a truth;
namely, that all in this world is only preparatory because transitory. 


P. 129	   It is like a chink…through which breaks in a ray of light from
the eternal…illuminating the inner senses, whispers to the prisoner…of the
origin and the dual mystery of our being…it is a…proof of the presence in
man of THAT which knows, -- that there is another and a better life, once
that the curse of earth-lives is lived through. 


P. 130	  Eastern wisdom teaches that spirit has to pass through the ordeal
of incarnation and life, and be baptised with matter before it can reach
experience and knowledge. After which only it receives the [second] baptism
of soul, or self-consciousness, and may return to its original condition of
a god, plus experience, ending with omniscience. 

P 130	   In other words, it can return to the original state of the
homogeneity of primordial essence only through the addition of the fruitage
of Karma, which alone is able to create an absolute conscious deity, removed
but one degree from the absolute ALL. 

P. 130	…evil must have existed before Adam and Eve, who, therefore, are
innocent of the slander of the original sin. For, had there been no evil or
sin before them, there could exist neither tempting Serpent nor a Tree of
Knowledge of good and evil in Eden. 

P. 130	   Too much knowledge about things of matter is thus rightly shown
an evil. 

P. 134	…we read in the "Scientific Letters" by an anonymous Russian author
and critic: 
“In the evolution of isolated individuals, in the evolution of the organic
world, in that of the Universe, as in the growth and development of our
planet--in short wherever any of the processes of progressive complexity
take place, there we find, apart from the transition from unity to
plurality, and homogeneity to heterogeneity, a converse transformation--the
transition front plurality to unity, from the heterogeneous to the
homogeneous. . . . “

P. 134	   In this case material nature repeats the law that acts in the
evolution of the psychic and the spiritual: both descend but to reascend and
merge at the starting-point. The homogeneous formative mass or element
differentiated in its parts, is gradually transformed into the
heterogeneous; then, merging those parts into a harmonious whole, it
recommences a converse process, or reinvolution, and returns as gradually
into its primitive or primordial state. 
P. 135-6    Modern Society is permeated with an increasing cynicism and
honeycombed with disgust of life. This is the result of an utter ignorance
of the operations of Karma and the nature of Soul evolution...Once the basis
of the Great Law is grasped--and what philosophy can furnish better means
for such a grasp and final solution, than the esoteric doctrine of the great
Indian Sages-- 
P.136	   The reasonableness of Conscious Existence can be proved only by
the study of the primeval--now esoteric--philosophy. And it says "there is
neither death nor life, for both are illusions; being (or BENESS) is the
only reality." … "Life is Death," said Claude Bernard. The organism lives
because its parts are ever dying. The Survival Of The Fittest is surely
based on this truism. The life of the superior whole requires the death of
the inferior, the death of the parts depending on and being subservient to
it. And, as life is death, so death is life, and the whole great cycle of
lives form but ONE EXISTENCE--the worst day of which is on our planet. He
who KNOWS will make the best of it. For there is a dawn for every being,
when once freed from illusion and ignorance by Knowledge; and he will at
last proclaim in truth and all Consciousness to Mahamaya: 

	BROKEN THY HOUSE IS, AND THE RIDGE-POLE SPLIT!
	DELUSION FASHIONED IT!
	SAFE PASS I THENCE--DELIVERANCE TO OBTAIN. . . .

			[from the DHAMMAPADA   Gautama Buddha]

========================================================================









Dallas

-----Original Message-----
From: khalil53 [mailto:khalil53@comcast.net] 
Sent: Saturday, July 01, 2006 12:57 AM
To: study@blavatsky.net
Subject: [bn-study] Re: Origin of Evil

Dear Robert,
Thank you for your enlightened comments. We cannot force anyone to do
anything, Nor can we ourselves hate them for their actions.
 
sincerely,
 
George Haynes
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Roberto N. Lupercio 
To: study@blavatsky.net 
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 5:05 PM
Subject: [bn-study] Origin of Evil

Dear Pepe,
This is only an idea.
 
"We can't make them" RENOUNCE VIOLENCE.
 
Every person has to do this renounce voluntarily. We can only spread the
ideas of brotherhood.
If we enforce any ideas it will became another religion or dogma.
 
This quote may help:
 
6. Those who desire to acquire the knowledge leading to the Siddhis (occult
powers) have to renounce all the vanities of life and of the world .
   
[Lucifer, Vol. II, No. 8, April, 1888, pp. 150-154] PRACTICAL OCCULTISM

Best regards
 
Roberto L.
-----Original Message----- 
From: PepeGuitar@aol.com 
Sent: Jun 27, 2006 9:54 PM 
To: study@blavatsky.net 
Subject: [bn-study] RE: Origin of Evil 


We must do something.
We humans.
I propose to start a movement, a campaign,
to RENOUNCE VIOLENCE.
Start individualy, then go to every group,
every community, every religion, every country,
and make them also RENOUNCE VIOLENCE.
If we can achieve just this (and I know is a dream)
we will have won.
 
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Visit Seekerbooks.com and get great deals on books, music and videos.
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promote and sustain this site. Distributed by Blavatsky Net P.O. Box 847
Blue Ridge, GA 30513 You are currently subscribed to bn-study as:
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%%email.unsub%%
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Seekerbooks.com is the bookstore for Blavatsky Net, your purchases help
promote and sustain this site. Distributed by Blavatsky Net P.O. Box 847
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